§ Viscount CASTLEREAGHasked the President of the Board of Education if, in the present impetus given to technical and agricultural education in England and Wales by the Board of Education and the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, special consideration has been given to the various industrial and economic incidences consequent on the gradual drifting of unskilled labour from the land or purely agricultural areas to the populous centres of industry; and, if such conditions have operated, whether, in view of the advisability, in purely agricultural districts or whole administrative areas of that nature, of linking more closely or more effectively elementary education and practical agri- 486W cultural training, he would be prepared to consider the question of amending and enlarging the special regulations contained in Schedule III. of the current Code of the Board of Education, or provide other special provisions whereby it may be possible for boys during the last year of their elementary school life to receive some special instruction in such elementary farming or agricultural operations as may be prompted by local industrial needs and the individual interests of the scholars, on lines somewhat similar to those given in the Schedule referred to which govern short courses of instruction in dairywork, gardening, handicraft, cookery, laundry-work, and housewifery?
§ Mr. J. A. PEASEI am fully alive to the considerations referred to in the first part of the question. As regards the second part, the Board encourage, and desire to stimulate, by all means in their power the adaptation, within proper limits, of rural schools to their environment in respect of curriculum and methods of instruction. In this connection I may refer the Noble Lord to pages 19 and 20 of the "Suggestions to Teachers" published in 1905, to the "Suggestions on Rural Education" published in 1908, to page 122 of the Board's Report for the year 1908–9, to Chapter ii. of the Memorandum on the Principles and Methods of Rural Education published in 1911, and to Articles 2, 3, and 4 of the Code. I may also refer him to Circular 778 with reference to classes for teachers in rural subjects. Whether it would be desirable or possible to provide for the payment by special grant under Schedule III. of the Code in respect of specific instruction in agriculture to be given to boys of twelve or thirteen is a question on which I am not at present prepared to express an opinion. The Board have actually sanctioned experiments in giving instruction to scholars in school hours in certain operations of husbandry, such as hedging, thatching, pig and poultry keeping, basket-making, bookkeeping, and I am quite prepared to entertain any well-considered proposals for further experiments of a similar character.